The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-02-24
Among Grizzly Bears.

AmongGr|zZIy Bears.
My comrade, Red Pratt, and I were
hunting elk and deer along the base of
the great white quartz cliffs of the
Medic ne Bow mountains. Pratt was
red headed, red whiskered, red-eyed
and red-shirted. He was a long, dang
ling mountaineer, trapper, prospector
and hunter Rough persons, who
affected brevity and frankness of
speech, said that he was the mghtiest
liar in the whole Rocky Mountain re-
gion, where liars abound and frauds
and humbugs thrive. Other, and more
polite, persons spoke of him as the
mendacious one. But be this as it may,
Pratt was good comrade. He sl.irk-
Ell no camp work. And though he
was not good hunter, he did not re-
turn from unsuccessful hunts and
claim to have wounded numerous
game animals, nor did he send me to
hunt mythical bears, elk or deer which
he claimed to have seen.
Around the campfire, after supper
had been eaten, and we lay reclining
against logs and smoking sweet pipes
and 1azily watching the play of the
sparks. Pratt was a comrade beyond
price. Then he would take the brake
off his vivid imagination and riot in
hunting tales, which almost invariably
related to enormous bears. grizzly. sill
ver-tipped and black. Once only was
he guilty of inventing an animal. the
beezlegum, which he located in myth
ical mountain chain in Arizona, but l
strenuously objected to the introduce
circle of our campfire and resolutely
ruled it out, and in the most friendly
manner advised Pratt to stick to bears.
The evening on which l had kicked
the beezlegum away from our camp
fire. Pratt pretended to sulk for awhile,
and then he looked reproachfully at
me for II few minutes, and said: The
beezlegum story is a mighty interesting
story, young fellow, but you will never
hear 1t. No." he added. as he saw
that had no intention to listen to it.
mo, not if you begged ME on bended
knees,( would not tell it. But will
tell you about bear l once met" He
spoke as though he had once been in
friendly and daily intercourse with the
animal.
Zone fall. some years ago." said
Pratt. Il was hunting elk for market
on Longs Peak, in Colorado. My camp
was near the edge of high wall which
overlooked deep canon. This canon
was about $50 yards across. On the op-
posite wall, which was almost bare of
timber and not nearly so precipitous as
the one | was above. there was a heavy
game trail which led up to the main
mountain. Along this trail many game
animals travelled. One frosty morning l
got out of my blankets, lit my pipe.
and walked to the edge of the canon
wall to smoke before breakfast. While
l was sitting on a rock l saw large
bear shambling down the trail on the
opposite bluff. When he was almost
directly opposite me he stopped and
reared up against a tree, then standing
upright he hung onto the tree with one
fore paw and reached up and struck
the bark with the claws of his free paw.
l had while hunting seen several bears
do this queer thing. And l had seen
dozens of the marks they had made by
scratching the trees. But l did not
know why they did it. After sSriking
the tree the bear dropped on all fours,
looked up at his mark, smiled, with
satisfaction, probably, and shambled
along the trail and out of sight. Pres
emily l saw another and larger bear
walk slowly down the trail. When he
came to the tree which the previous
bear had scratched, he halted. looked
quickly up at the scratch, then he stood
upright ON his hind legs, and with a
free swinging blow he scratched the
bark at least a foot higher than the
mark made by the other bear. Then
he dropped to his four feet, looked at
tentvely ut the marks for an instant,
and confidently staggered down the
trail.
II now understood what the bears
were up to. They were scratching
their size and presumably fighting
weight on the trees, so that all other
bears could read it. Presently little
one cared black bear came into view.
He, too. was bound down the trail.
The little fellow was walking slowly.
He frequently dropped his nose to the
tracks made by the other bears to smell
Of them. Then he would stop and sit
up and look around the country to see
if the other bears were in sight. Evi-
dently he was keeping his eyes open.
No big bear was going to get chance
to grab and chew him if watchfulness
on his part would protect him. When
he got to the pine tree and saw the
marks that had been made bv the large
bears he started back as though he had
been menaced with club. His heart
stood still as he conjured the size and
ferocious appearance Of the bears which
had preceded him. He recovered his
nerve in minute, then stood up and
looked around the country. Then he
timidly approached the tree and stood
up to his extreme height and modestly
stretched up his paw, but hc did not
scratch the bark. He was discouraged.
He sat on his launches and looked at
the marks, first hanging his head on
one side and then on the other. so as to
make sure they were really there. and
not optical delusions. As he sat wag-
ging his head to and fro, thinking deep
ly, saw his tongue begin to loll a lit
tie. Then he smiled, showing his
teeth plainly. He arose to his feet and
walked up the hill to where pine pole
was living. He seized it with his teeth